Playground Blues
by Warfang
Summary: Finn is running from the bullies, and may have met someone -or something- far more dangerous.
1. Chapter 1

I do not own Storm Hawks! This is an AU. The extent of which, I want to be normal, but vampirism seems to be creeping in on it, so let me go beat it out by writing a separate fanfic that may never see the light of day to keep it mostly the way I want it to be. A little heartwarming story.

What? Did you think I only wrote Finn in dead or depressing situations?

On with the story!

Finns at the playground swing, crying silently. The other kids, especially the bully Carver, had been picking on him again.

Usually that wasn't a problem. Usually Piper, Aerrow, Stork, or Junko would be at the fifth grade playground and keep him company and keep the mean kids away from him.

But Piper was so smart, she was in advance classes already, Aerrow had training as a promising Athlete, Junko was transferred into a class with a different recess time, and Stork had moved to another section of town with his Dad's promotion.

So there was no one for Finn when the other kids moved in on him.

Most of them left him alone, but the new teacher didn't understand that Finn needed his slingshot to defend himself, and had scheduled a meeting with Finn's Mom about Finn bringing dangerous artifacts, such as the slingshot, to school.

Finn's mother had told the teacher that he was an ass and that if Finn felt he was in danger, than he was.

But she didn't have the time or money to home school Finn, so Finn learned to turn in A-grade papers and stay out of Mr. Colonel's way.

Sniffling hard and steadying his breath, Finn watched the game of Kickball going on. He had stayed out of the line up this time.

He knew that if he tried to join in, he would be targeted to fail by both teams.

Finn looked up to the sky, with its different shades of blue, and wished that he had wings. The skies were ruled in an entirely different method, and once, he would have lost himself to the inner musings and ramblings that would help him better understand the world through observing it.

Now, he was scared to think, to be distracted, because Carver would sneak up on him and hurt him or humiliate him when he wasn't paying attention to his surroundings.

What hurt the most was that no one would help him. All of his friends were gone. He only saw them on the weekends and sometimes on the evenings.

But if his friends wanted to go somewhere that needed money, Finn would have to skip lunch for the next week to go with them.

His mother was furious with him for endangering his health, but she also understood that it was his friends getting him through the worse times.

She had hugged him so tightly that night, and never let go.

"Hey, Finnster!"

Oh, no, here they come.

Finn leapt off the swing and landed away from the set. If he needed to run, he didn't want one of Carver's friends circling around him to trip him up.

"I'm talking to you, crybaby!"

Ah, the ever original insults. Besides, Finn didn't cry. He never cried. He screamed instead. He always came close to crying, and at first his mom thought something was wrong with him, but the doctors reassured her that at some point, Finn had just decided to not cry.

"_Whether he deemed it unnecessary or unimportant isn't the issue here. Finn won't cry unless he has been highly agitated. He doesn't have anything wrong with him physically." Finn remembered the man in the white coat who had told his mother that. He was a giant of a man, and considered odd by his contemporaries, but he had backed up the claim with a credible source._

Finn wasn't weird, or a freak, just because he had exceptional eyesight.

He narrowed his cerulean orbs at Carver, and gauged the distance.

Maybe if he sprinted, he could clear the fence and get back to the school where other teachers would put a stop to the chase.

Finn prayed that the extra training had paid off and spun on the balls of his feet.

Trapped. The other kids were between him and the school's entrance, and fast as he was, he couldn't dodge them all.

The only way out was to run into the forest.

"What are you going to do, Finn? No teacher, no friends, no help for you. I'm going to show you where a white crayon like yourself belongs."

There was a mad glint in Carver's eyes.

What had Finn ever done to piss him off? It was like he just decided that Finn was his personal punching bag when Aerrow and Junko left.

Piper had beaten Carver at a match once, but she was very strong, even for a girl!

Faking to break left, Finn doubled back and hurtled for the tree line. He shot between two trees growing close together, thanking his mother for her slim frame and frugal spending that kept him lean.

Then he was in the forest.

Finn kept running. He wasn't stopping until he was out of breath. He refused to look back and see Carver putting on the speed for the last mad dash to catch him.

He ran right into a wall of solid flesh.

"Hey!"

Finn looked up, from where he had fallen over in collision.

"Watch it!" The kid said.

Ulp. The kid was a High School teenager. They did bad stuff like drugs and sex. And this one looked pretty mad, with his styled jacket and lean frame. Two red eyes glared at Finn from under jet black hair that gleamed in the filtering sunlight.

The kid's face twisted from a snarl into a gentler, okay, it was resigned with a hint of concern, sort of like how a shark is sorry for biting into a human.

Not because sharks have bad eyesight, but because humans don't taste good.

"Are you bleeding?"

The teenager leaned over him.

Trapped.

"N-no!"

Finn shoved at the boy, but the sheer mass difference meant he raised an eyebrow rather than back off. He didn't even grunt.

"Whoa, hold on, I won't hurt you. I want to help. I have a little sister a bit older than you."

Finn stopped hitting him with his clenched fists. He couldn't pull his arms back to give him a right straight, so he had settled on pounding him.

"You do? Does she go to Atmos Elementary?"

"Nah, she's at the Cyclonian Academy. I go there too. It's a private school that does kindergarten through college and offers boarding."

"That's across town." Finn had heard of the somewhat rival school, that was considered superior to the Atmos system.

The teen sat up and helped Finn to a park bench, on what, it seemed, was a nature trail far behind the school.

Finn hoped that his mother wouldn't be too worried when the school called her, telling her that her son had run off and they couldn't find him.

"Not a lot of kid's your age know that."

"Stork's going there. His dad got a promotion, and Stork's really smart. He got in on a scholarship. And Piper wants to go there too someday, they are supposed to have a huge library, she actually has read nearly every book she can in the school and the public library in out system."

It felt nice to have someone to talk to. The teen sat apart from him on the bench, twisted to face him. He didn't make any sudden movements, and studied Finn. Finn held very still, because he didn't want the teenager to know he knew that he was starring.

The kid settled down. "Yeah, there is a lot of talent out there. My girlfriend Ravess wants to start and Archery club, but her parents refuse to let her get distracted from playing the violin. I say; if she has an itch, let her scratch it. It doesn't turn into a war zone that way."

The teen smiled. "She's fighting really hard to get her dream, but all I want to do is be there for my baby sister, because our parents are either dead or too busy with their lives. Apparently, I was made during their honeymoon, and she was planned."

The teen gave a derisive snort. "I come out here to relax and take a deep breath. Not a lot of people know about this preserved space, but if I have my way, Cyclonia will buy this lot and help keep it here in this town. What's your story?"

Finn mulled over his answer, drawing his legs up to his chest.

He glanced into the red eyes. They were open, and seemed honest, or at least curious.

"Carver was going to bully me again, so I ran and wound up here."

The teen blinked and tilted his head to the side. He looked like a bird that was encountering a new being and was curious as to how to peck at it to get what it wanted.

"Who's Carver?"

"He's a bully in my class. Ever since Aerrow and Junko left, he's been picking on me. I can just outrun him, but that's because I'm lighter than him."

The teen made the same blinking twitch.  
"If Aerrow has red hair, then he must be the new kid my sister is so smitten with."

"Oh."

Finn curled up more into himself. He thought that Aerrow was drifting away from him in their friendship; he just didn't think that Aerrow would actually leave.

Something inside of Finn was shattering.

The teen pulled Finn onto his lap.

"Shhh, shhh, its okay…its okay…."

Tears slipped down Finn's cheeks.

"He left me….."

The teen rocked Finn back and forth. After a while, Finn stopped crying.

"Well, it's not just your lost. My sister plays less with me and more with him. I'm scared I'll be replaced. I want her to have the best, but I don't want her to throw me away."

The teen rubbed Finn's back.

"What is she like?" Finn sniffled.

"Well, she's really smart, and really pretty. She's a bit like a doll, but she certainly can hold her own in a fight for a girl. She has purple eyes and dark black hair that looks purple in the sunlight."

Finn nodded.

"They sound like a good match. But Aerrow wouldn't leave Piper."

"Is Piper really smart? Blue hair?"

Finn nodded.

"It's okay then. Cyclonis is friends with both of them. But how about you? If you go back, will you be alright?"

Finn shook his head.

The drops of blood that splattered on the ground brought his attention to a cut he hadn't seen before.

"Uhm…" The bleeding needed to be stopped, so Finn proceeded to take his shirt off to staunch the blood flow.

"Wait. There's something I learned at the Academy that can stop that even better."

The red eyed teen lay Finn on the park bench, lifted his hand to his mouth, and began to like the blood and dirt off the hand.

Finn watched as a feeling of numbness slowly crept into his fingers. When the teen pulled away and started on another cut, Finn tried to curl his hand close.

"Don't." A pale hand snaked around his wrist. "It's healing."

Finn felt the warm tongue lave at other wounds. Bruises that were still dark purple or yellow-green were found and given the same attention to. Finn didn't realize that his shirt had come off until the teen pulled the shirt back over him, gently.

Finn found it a little uncomfortable, but nothing to whine over.

The pain was going away.

"Are there a lot of people who can do this?" He asked. He felt safe, even if he had only met the teenager. He wasn't even touching Finn, just running his tongue over a few scrapes that were red and angry on his neck.

"No. I'm one of the few who can."

Finn fell silent as the teen began to lick the other hand. When he was done, Finn crawled back into his lap.

"So, what made you run all the way into the forest today?"

"He- he called me useless."

"Oh? Really?"

"Well, he called me a 'white crayon' and that implied that I was useless compared to all of the other colors."

The teen snorted.

"No, the white crayon is not useless. It's an enhancer. It takes what there is and changes everything. In fact, white crayons are the only ones you want when working with black paper."

Finn felt his eyes seek out the red orbs. They seemed to gleam at him in the afternoon sunlight.

"I could be your black paper if you'll be my white crayon."

Finn gazed into the red eyes, and felt the numbing sensation in his fingers tingle as it left.

"Okay."

A/N: Okay, this was supposed to be a simple 'Finn finds solace in Dark Ace' School AU, and now I really want to make DA a vampire, but I'm already doing that for a different story.

Urgh. This was supposed to be a heartwarming story about DA being Finn's black paper to his white crayon (not a euphemism, just a –clean- metaphor) and then it turned creepy! And I can't figure how to re-write it! Not to mention, I never actually named Dark Ace in this fanfic! All of you scrolling back up to check, no cookie for you.

Review, and this may or may not remain a one-shot. I mean, who wants a border-line Vampire family to rip Carver into itty-bitty pieces? Sort of a, Dracula meet Twilight meet Let the Right One In meet the Storm Hawks story.

Okay, now I feel terrified, and I have other stories to be working on. Ciao!


	2. Chapter 2

I do not own Storm Hawks! Or Gatorade! But thanks to finals and my hectic life right now, updates will be slow for another two weeks! I'm surprised I'm even doing this update.

….I guess procrastination is how I cope with stress.

Anyway, Finn's in seventh grade for this chapter.

On with the Story!

After Finn met the mysterious boy in the forest, he was hauled to the Principal's Office for running away from the school.

He had tried to explain that Carver was bullying him, but all of the teachers said that Finn just didn't want to get in trouble.

He was kept indoors during Recess for the next week. The only upside to that was that Carver couldn't bully him during Recess. So Carver tried to get at him during lunch.

After the Spaghetti Incident, Finn was relocated permanently to eat with the teachers. It wasn't so bad. Sure, Mr. Colonel was scary and ate weird smelling food, but he had impeccable manners. Even when Finn got home, he kept his elbows off the table and wiped his mouth, and never spoke with his mouth full again.

His mother was grateful for the break.

Finn never saw the red-eyed boy again, even though he visited Aerrow and Piper on the rare weekends that they weren't swamped with projects or group studies.

He mentioned meeting him once to Aerrow, and Aerrow glared viciously at the ground. After taking deep, calming breaths, he told Finn to forget about him.

Finn didn't promise that he would. Piper was rolling her eyes, so maybe the dislike was only temporary, or from a bad encounter.

His sixth grade was passed with Carver sharing only one class with him, and the teacher somehow kept the bully across the room and Finn away from his minions for the whole semester. Then she left on maternity leave and the substitute teacher put Finn and Carver together.

Hell began for Finn. Carver would rest his hand on Finn's lap, and no matter what Finn did, he couldn't get him to stop. And since Carver's goons sat behind them, no one called Carver on the odd behavior.

That was the only class that Finn had a C plus in by the end of the year. If he hadn't made an A in the previous semester, he would have been looking at a repeat year. The teacher never believed him when he asked to just have a different desk partner and told him to deal with it.

Finn couldn't hate the man when he could barely understand what was wrong. Then he met the Health Teacher in seventh grade.

She had Carver hauled out of school for 'errant and disturbing' behavior, citing that it was unnatural to focus on one person with such intensity to the point of making the other insecure. She told Finn that it was okay for two people of the same sex to be together, but that wasn't society's general view.

Finn talked to his Mom. The birds and the bees told him more about how to raise a child than why it was dangerous to make children.

The Health Education teacher explained to him why sex was dangerous.

Finn swore off going alone with anyone he didn't know and to never do drugs, even if the other kids said that they were cool and safe.

Those were lies.

* * *

It was dark. Finn had joined the track club, and while he wasn't the fastest kid, he wasn't the slowest one either. He liked stopping by the public library and doing his homework in the quiet solitude rooms that no one remembered where on the third floor except for Finn and the librarians.

Miss Starling was a nice lady, and she would have Gatorade waiting for him when he reached the rooms. She used to baby-sit him for his mother when his mother pulled double-shifts and Finn was still too small to cook.

Tonight, it was fall break, and Finn was coming home late from watching a Football game. He had returned his library books, and had checked the shelves.

Again, the library had informed him that he still had a copy of a book when he had turned it in. The Librarians apologized for the sixth time that year and filed the book. It wasn't all that big of a problem to Finn. So far, none of the books had been late.

But as he walked home from the game, he wished that he hadn't taken that detour to drop the book off.

In order to save time, he had hoped to cut through the park. It was still open at ten, with a lovely moon and patrol guards. But the route Finn was thinking of taking was dark.

He forgot that they were still fixing the lamp posts. Well, nothing for it now. He'd be fine. If anything happened, he could run.

Finn didn't notice his keys fall out of his back pocket.

He also didn't see the figure that picked the keys up and followed him.

* * *

Finn started to feel uneasy after he left the park with no incidents. A patrol car had slowed down beside him, and Harrier asked him if he was crazy.

"I forgot once I left the game that perhaps I would want a jacket. I'll text you after I get home, promise."

Harrier grunted. "I'm not all that worried about you. The streets have been pretty quiet, but I can cruise with you awhile."

"Thanks."

Finn talked with him until he had to split from the vigilant cop. Sure, Harrier might be pompous, but he did have a good heart. What was better was that he had a loyal squadron that didn't deal in drugs or bribes.

Neither the cop nor the student noticed the shadow peel away from the back alley and follow Finn down the side road.

Approaching the apartment complex, Finn praised his mother for getting a raise in one of her jobs. Sure, it added three hours, but it was a definite four thousand increase! His mom could quite one of her jobs and go to working only two jobs after that.

Finn did the chores in return for an allowance of twenty bucks a month. When he admitted to his mother that he had trouble spending the money, she showed him how she balanced her checkbook.

Once Finn understood that a lot of the books and CDs he wanted to buy could just be checked out or ordered from the library, he could buy other things with his money.

Finn mused over the arts and crafts kit he was thinking about. He wondered if Piper would like the necklace he was making for her as he stepped on the landing for the fifth floor.

He only bothered taking the elevator if he was late. He swore that it was a death trap. The figure stopped on the fourth floor beneath him.

Once Finn walked down the hall with the open railing to his left, the figure dashed up the stairs quietly.

Finn reached his door and went to get his keys. He froze.

His keys were missing. When had he lost them? Not when he was with Harrier, and he knew he had them when he dropped off the books…then at the park? Maybe he could let himself in with the spare key and search for the missing key in the morning.

"Excuse me."

Finn jumped. There was a man, about college age, and he was holding a familiar set of keys.

"You dropped these at the park and I've been chasing you since. I didn't want to lose you if I scared you."

Finn stared at the stranger.

"Uh, yeah, thanks."

The stranger smirked at him.

Finn tensed. He didn't care that relaxing your muscles would give you a faster reaction time, he was scared. This guy had been stalking him, with his lean physique and creepy red eyes….

Wait.

Red eyes? Natural red eyes?

"Black paper?"

* * *

Finn poured the hot chocolate into two mugs and set one down on the coffee table. The apartment was small. The dining room and the kitchen were the same area, with a living room behind it, meaning the kitchen was walked through first.

There was no hallway leading into the kitchen. Behind that, the living room, and adjacent to the living room were two bedrooms. The bathroom was a small one, with a shower and a toilet. The sink was minuscule, and didn't have a cabinet underneath it.

Finn made up for that by scoring a mirror that doubled as a cabinet. Sure, it had some dark stains on it, but it wasn't moldy or cracked, and his mom loved it.

There was a second-hand couch that was soft and saggy in the living room, with two chairs also saved from the curb-side. The black haired youth sat in one of them. The coffee table had nothing wrong with it. The mugs were clean, and the place was well kept. No dishes were piled up, and the place smelled wonderful.

"I take it that you are adept at looking after yourself?"

"Yeah. My mom works too hard to also do the housework, but she insists that my education comes first. So I come home, turn on the radio and clean the house. I prep dinner, she comes home and I offer her a snack, turn on the stove. We eat, and then I do my homework and study. She naps. When I'm down, I wake her up and she gets ready for her second job. Then I wake up early before school and visit with her before we leave for the day."

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to ramble on. How have you been?"

"Well, I heard from your friends why I never saw you again, so when I saw a blond walking through the park, I chanced that it would be you."

Those red eyes were turned on him again.

"Finn, are you still being bullied?"

"Ah? Oh no. Carver was yanked out in sixth grade by a Health Educator. Which reminds me, was it Ravess who wanted to become a musician?"

A dark eyebrow was raised. "You remember that?"

"Well, I never caught your name, and when I described you, Aerrow got all growly, so I practiced remembering what happened. If it was the last time I ever saw you, I wanted to remember what it was like."

"Dark Ace."

"Huh?"

"My name."

"Huh? OH!"

Dark Ace grinned into his hot chocolate and sipped it. For something made from scratch, it was delicious. He only had the packaged kind before.

"Well, I don't want to keep you from your sleep, so here's my cell number. Call me."

Finn nodded and accepted the scrap of paper. He walked Dark Ace to the door, and that's when it happened. Dark Ace turned around, and Finn felt the faintest breath against his lips. Then Dark Ace was smiling at him, and out the door.

Finn raised a hand to his lips before locking the door.

Did Dark Ace just feint to kiss him?

* * *

A/N: because it is 2AM and I need my sleep. Sorry to cut it off there. But I'll update this and go to bed. I'll proof read and be horrified later.


	3. Chapter 3

...When did I last say that I would update? Because I scrolled through my stories, and found a few that I hadn't worked on in a while. Sorry about that. Well, I updated chapter 2 of the errors I found (how tired was I?) and here's chapter three. Finn's still in seventh grade.

I just realized that makes him about thirteen, not sixteen. Okay, math time. If DA was a teenager, say fifteen, and Finn was six, then Finn is thirteen, and DA is ….twenty-four.

….well, at least it's better than the story arc line. Some people think DA would have to be thirty, and then Finn's fourteen! So yeah, I'm going to hustle it along to Finn being sixteen pretty soon…eheheh.

On with the story!

Finn slid the deadbolt home and went to clean up the cocoa. Then he grazed his fingers over his lips and wondered if Dark Ace had just kissed him. Glancing at the eleven thirty displayed on the clock, Finn wondered if calling Aerrow would be a wise idea.

Calling Piper would be wiser, and she did tend to log those late hours. Dialing her number from memory, Finn was glad he saved for a pre-paid phone.

"Hello?"

"Ack, Piper, you're sleeping? Sorry, I guess this can wait till morning. I just needed to talk to someone." Finn whispered.

"Mmm, I'm fine. Talk and make it fast, I just hit the hay." If it had been any other friend, Piper would have suggested a coffee shop and hung up.

"Do you remember Dark Ace? Red eyes? I met him in second grade? Aerrow was mad? Well, he was just here, and I think we kissed. I mean, his lips ghosted over mine and then he was gone-"

"HE WHAT?" Piper's shrill voice cut off Finn's rushed, lowered voice.

"I think he kissed me. I got a vague impression that he did, but it wasn't aggressive or anything, and then he was out the door."

Piper was silent for a long time.

"You still there?"

"Finn? Does he know where you live?"

"Um, yeah. He followed me home to give my back my keys! I dropped them, and he tailed me to give me back my keys! That's all! I invited him in for cocoa, we talked, kissed, and he left! I mean, I think he kissed me."

Finn sped up and slowed down when he realized what Piper might be thinking, slowing down again at his last line.

"Piper, calm down, I'm okay. The deadbolt is in, my Mom's going to be back soon. I'm fine."

"…Isn't this the weekend your mom is out on that training program so she can drop down to two jobs, and might even have to work just one job with odd hours?"

"Because she had to take the one that started over the fall break, I forgot. Anyway, I am writing a note to call you in the morning and tell you that I'm okay. See you around, Piper. Sleep well, bye."

"Bye Finn."

They hung up, and while Finn posted the note on the bathroom mirror and got ready for bed, Piper texted Aerrow.

While Piper dealt with Aerrow's explosion about the Dark Ace bringing clean gangs in to drive out drug gangs, and that he better stay away from Finn, Finn sat up in twin bed on the floor and proclaimed,

"I never found out if it was a real kiss!" before groaning and flopping back on the bed. Sleep came in what felt like the a.m. hours, but Finn had sent a call to Piper to assure her he was okay.

He didn't send a text because anyone could do that with his cell.

* * *

Finn continued with his grades, and the next few years flew by. He kept up with track, and was even eyeing a track scholarship to any college where he could learn something that he could market.

Perhaps a chef? Junko was going to become either a chef or a mechanics engineer. Aerrow was going into the army, Piper wanted to be a sailor or a captain (a cruiser or any ship would do) and Stork was looking to be a specialist.

In what, Finn guessed, had to be a hazardous situation, because no one liked a know it all.

Stork had actually snorted his bagel laughing when Finn dead panned that. Finn blushed, but Stork reassured him that it was okay. They were all in the tenth grade, even with their acceleration.

It pretty much boiled down to that colleges didn't want to deal with a lawsuit involving a minor, so they weren't allowed to skip grades and move on to more challenging subjects.

But Finn pointed out that learning something from a teacher not used to handling super smart kids would just bore them, and bored kids meant trouble. It also meant failing grades.

But their eleventh year was upon them, and soon, they could apply for colleges. Finn ate his hard earned muffin with a vengeance.

"So, how's your mom doing, Finn?"

"Some guy at work is chatting her up. Whether because he likes her for her is yet to be found out. I vote someone hack his computer and only his personal files, but that's just me. Any significant others, Piper?"

Piper didn't question how Finn always neutralized the gender when it came to love. Junko had found a sweet girl, and their families were already arranging the marriage.

The others cheered that Junko was happy and left it at that.

"Radarr's not going to make it to Christmas." Aerrow said quietly. His loyal dog, Radarr, had been with Aerrow since Cyclonis had given him the puppy for Christmas nearly ten years ago. Then some jerk had hit Radarr with his car and sped off.

It just didn't make sense. Radarr was on his leash, and Aerrow had turned to make sure cars weren't coming, when Radarr jumped up on him and knocked him over, away from a speeding car.

Aerrow sunk his vacation spending into the operation to save Radarr instead of traveling with Piper and Cyclonis that summer. Now, a year later, Radarr was leaving him.

The mood dropped after that. Finn kept quiet. Some people would tell jokes to lighten the mood, but Radarr was family. He deserved a moment of silence.

"But, uhm, his wife had puppies, so my hands are going to be full."

Finn cheered. Not exuberantly, but he did ask Aerrow when he could come see the puppies.

"I've never held a puppy before! Are they really wriggly?"

Aerrow chuckled. "Let's take this to go and head to my place. My parents might be home, so look proper."

The gang laughed and headed out. Finn spent the rest of the afternoon looking after bundles of fur that loved to yip. Aerrow talked quietly with his parents about selling a few and keeping some. His parents weren't happy because many colleges didn't allow pets.

"What about the Cyclonian Academy? Don't they go all the way to college level?"

Everyone else stiffened.

Finn set the puppies back in with their mom.

"Okay, what's going on, and why do I not know?"

A/N: Okay, that's enough for tonight, I want to get up early tomorrow. See ya'll soon!


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